Solid ground
by Wolf With Morals
Summary: A fluffy Ace and 7th Doctor bit. There are constants in the universe.So, why does it seem the things he really wishes remain the same, are always changing? How can you stop from stumbling when there is no sure footing?


_Author's note: Fluffy stuff, a little introspective and lots of silence._

_Enjoy, Review if you please. =)  
_

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She was running across the field, her open smile certainly didn't escape the Doctor. He tapped his fingers across the handle of his umbrella, and popped his hat to her. But, her attention was a million galaxies away.

He hunched his back a little, leaning forward from his little patch of comfortable grass he'd settled onto. He rolled his hands across the red plastic. Melancholy was again begging his companionship. Usually, he'd denied it's presence.

Still, he brought his chin to rest on the chipped hold, and watched Ace. They had needed a break. A short time to breathe, allowing recovery.

His companion was in tattered shorts just above the knee, and a war-torn striped tee-shirt. He was rather sure she'd had that shirt since the day he met her. Surprisingly, it still fit, although it was a tad thread-bare.

But, she needed this. Freedom more then modesty right now.

A little smirk pulled at his weathered features. Her vitality still evident from the Cheetah virus, but, she would certainly ache in the morning. Her movements were much slower then they had been in their previous visits, each of her steps a reminder of how swiftly she was leaving him.

He closed his eyes, feeling this uninhabited planet age beneath his bare feet. A place for quiet and solace, an empty paradise.

The spinning of the tiny world was dizzying if he remained focused on it too long.

Constant fumbling over his own feet plagued him. The sense of the shifting universe. There was never any solid footing.

Ace was getting farther away now. He sensed time rippling around her, as if a trap ready to spring.

His eyes flashed open.

Time was locking in this point?

Rising to his feet, from the grassy knoll he'd been enjoying, the Doctor glanced around.

He couldn't see her. Hearts speed began to pick up, and he strode forward.

Dragon-like butterflies escaped his coming. There was no sound, save the birds. Trilling and singing, albeit, they were wise enough to calm slightly.

A hand was settling into the area where his pullover met his shoulder. The Doctor glanced back. Ace had somehow slipped up behind him. She was frowning, her golden eyes blinking worriedly.

He quickly covered his mood, and rose an eyebrow, smirking.

She circled to the front. Slipping with strange grace through the long grass, her feet falling in perfect silence.

He grew serious as well. He'd come to recognize that austerity, often, sprang from knowledge.

There was still a hush. And he sensed time beginning to stretch, ready to snap back. Ace was looking intently at him. Her hardened eyes and her lips were tight in the corners. So often tensed, ever getting older.

Ace was nearly half of the average human life-span.

He would lose her soon. He'd earned and broken trust. He'd manipulated and nurtured. He'd run and he'd fallen.

Had he ever_ stopped_ falling with Ace?

It seemed he was always making those eyes older, those wrinkles a little deeper. Watching her become more and more wise, as that smile was fading further and further away.

There was a rush of wind. Ace pulled away his hat, fingering his battered icon.

The most frightening thing was, after everything, she still loved him.

Not that romantic love. The one that makes you stay awake until midnight, fighting giddiness.

This was the one that made you fall asleep, reassured of safety.

Real love. Unbreakable devotion.

The kind of love he poured out, never touching, always protecting.

But, it seemed he was always losing someone.

So, he would lose his footing for a while. Find comfort in the grinding echoes of universes constantly tearing and rebuilding. Listening to time shatter and solidify. These were constants. Overwhelming and ever present, among where he belonged.

He always found a place to land, though. If only for a time, before he would be left to everything intangible.

Fingers were tracing his shoulder, and he found her eyes to be shimmering with rare tears as they faded to a glittering hazel.

She had dropped his hat into the grass. Her other hand was wrapped around his and the scuffed umbrella.

He swallowed hard as she wrapped her arms around him. She had almost matched his diminutive height, oh, so many years ago. Fingers gently pressed his head downward. He hit her hair, breathing in her sharp smelling shampoo. His eyes closed, and he tried to breathe steadily.

Ace's hands were wrapping around him as a mother would a child. He'd never felt this maternal care Ace was presenting him. Certainly, he had not become the one in need of comfort? Certainly, she was more then a pupil now... But, what had they together become then?

Their bond had grown, and so often changed.

But remained, the understanding and acceptance.

It could have been disconcerting, if her motion hadn't been doing exactly what it was meant to.

He felt a catch in his breath. A whispering escape of air from his lips toyed across a fountain of greying brunette hair. He only just noticed.

How much had he missed? How many times had he allowed his attention to be on the 'bigger picture'. When his hands had been on the chess pieces. How often had he neglected to see the smaller details?

Such as the warmth of Ace's flushed skin. That scent of shampoo. Those greys, threading through. All the chances to apologize. Or ignored the pain in her eyes.

Falling, running, slipping and rising again. Constantly fleeing. Never looking back. Refusing closure, refusing responsibility. Running and falling. His every step in lives.

Ace was petting the back of his head, he felt her heart. Just below the breast bone, thrumming into his jaw.

One heart. An aging human heart.

He felt her chin rest on his down turned head, and he took anther long breath into the brown tendrils soft on his skin.

The heart beat was running out of time.

How many more years before she could no longer match his pace?

Rolling her chin gently, her hands pressed against his shoulders. He was removed from the little safe-haven in the crook of her neck.

Hazel eyes were now blinking away the tears that were not trailing her face. He instinctively reached for his handkerchief. She caught his hand.

Her fingers intertwined with his. Calloused by roughing through alien planets, from _age_.

He swallowed hard again. Allowing his umbrella to collapse in the soft grass beside his hat. Ace's lips twitched into that _smile_.

Feet, silent beneath her, began leading him. Soon, a jog.

At last, crossing a hill, a sprint.

Running from everything. Letting it all crash and fall by itself. If only for a moment.

For this short time, he fled with her. Not fumbling for footing.

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_A bit of needless fluff I suppose. Just for fun. Holds no context to any of my other writings._


End file.
